Frog Fad Spawns Assault on Music Industry

What's blue, annoying and anatomically incorrect? Without spending much time debating the possibilities, many people who have been bombarded for months with adverts on television, ring tones on the bus and now invasive snippets on the radio will soon come to the answer: Crazy Frog.

More than just a passing fad, the evil love-child of an unholy union between some very bored Swedes and a German dance act is set to become Britain's first ringtone inspired chart topper.

When the polls come in on BBC Radio One's chart show on Sunday, it is likely that Crazy Frog will beat the new and hugely anticipated single from rock group Coldplay to the coveted top slot.

Bored Swedes with too much time on their hands

The manic animated amphibian which began its ascent to the top of the music charts on the back of a phone jingle was spawned seven years ago by Daniel Malmedahl, a computer salesman from Gothenburg. Malmedahl, who has a 'talent' for replicating every day noises, recorded his impression of a friends' motorbike on his computer as a joke.

That joke ended up on the internet where fellow Swede Erik Wernquist, a designer of 3-D graphics, decided to build a character to fit the excruciating sound. Crazy Frog was born.

Unfortunately, the blue frog with a belly-button, 1950s style crash helmet and human genitalia (which are blocked out on British TV due to complaints by the Advertising Standards Authority) didn't die a death as a junk mail joke destined for the trash can of Internet history.

Instead, it was picked up by ring tone company Jamster and flogged mercilessly and relentlessly across all mediums. To date, Jamster has made more than 13 million euros (about $16 million) from people downloading Crazy Frog ringtones.

German dance act with something against music

But it hasn't stopped there. Not content with hearing what resembles a Skoda on its last legs trying to pick up speed in every bus, train and public place courtesy of mobile phones, Jamster is set to make another fortune thanks to German dance act Bass Bumpers who have combined the flatulent-sounding frog with the theme from Beverly Hills Cop for an assault on the music industry.

The CD is apparently outselling British band Coldplay's new single "Speed of Sound" by more than four to one with an estimated 400,000 copies of Crazy Frog already on order across the UK, according to the label Gut Records who is distributing the 'musical' monstrosity.

The frog is big business and with a number one single under its helmet, the anthropomorphic amphibian is expected to be just the first of a number of painful phone tie-ins which make it into the charts.